Nikki was an original Emeth student, beginning gymnastics with the very first session that Heather ever offered in Fall of 1999, when she was 8 years old, with a few mats at Christ Covenant Church. She continued with the program as we moved to the “red barn” behind the library in Burton in 2001 and then to our 6,000 square foot location in Middlefield behind Subway in 2006. Nikki was a member of the first Emeth competitive girls team, who won the Level 4 State Championship in 2004. Nikki’s favorite event to practice was beam, ad her favorite event to compete was floor. She continued through Level 8, became an Ohio USAG Graduating Senior, and then came on at Emeth as a full time gymnastics coach.

Nikki’s favorite memories of her time at Emeth: Nikki’s favorite memories include making it to Regionals on bars in her last year of competition. She says “And being the State Bar Champ that year was icing on the cake!”. Another one of her best memories is winning Level 4 State, “because we were all so close as teammates”.

Nikki was a great role model at Emeth because: Nikki was an extremely hard worker. She was never the most talented athlete on her team, but she achieved far greater accomplishments than anyone else did because of the way that she dreamed big dreams, never gave up, and worked harder than anyone else. Nikki also had an amazing way of including everyone around her, making practice a fun experience, and bring joy and laughter into whatever she did! She noticed every student that came in to Emeth, and became a hero among them all because of her accomplishments and the way that they knew they all mattered to her.

Some of Nikki’s greatest character qualities were: Her determination and her love and kindness. Nikki persevered towards her goals every day without tiring. She also loved her teammates deeply, cared about who they were and how they felt, and created great bonds between the entire team.